N between the presence of KRAS mutations and patient survival; however, there was difference in survival between the patients with different mutation types [14]. Lack of KRAS mutational status as predictive of survival was also reported in an earlier trial study of Gemctabine and Erlotinib therapy in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer [28]. KRAS mutations in the surgically negative resected margins have also been shown to be associated with clinical cancer recurrence, aggressive tumor biology and poor survival [29]. Similarly, detection of KRAS mutations in retroperitoneal margins, in the patients with complete pancreatectomy also showed poor prognosis [29]. The other gene that has been consistently reported to carry high frequency of somatic mutation in pancreatic cancers is CDKN2A [30]. The deletion/mutation frequency of CDKN2A in the present study was in agreement with that reported in the COSMIC database [31]. A mouse model with a conditional knock-in and knock-out of KrasG12D and Ink4a/Arf showed enhanced progression of pre-malignant lesions to PDAC [32,33]. In this study we found that the subset of patients with 
concomitant KRAS and CDKN2A aberrations were at 2.5-fold higher risk of death than patients without any alterations in the two genes. In a previous study it was shown that 1? mutations in pancreatic tumors showed a median survival of 23 months compared to 13 months in our present study [15]. The difference in median survival can be, possibly, attributed to the fact that 149 out of 159 patients in our study had stage III and IV tumors. Mice models have shown that survival times were dependent on genetic aberrations accompanying a KRAS mutation [34,35]. Similar results were reported in a study on KRAS mutations together with loss of heterozygosity on different chromosomal positions [29]. In conclusion, our results show that mutations in KRAS are frequent but not universal in pancreatic tumors and the presence of KRAS mutations in general, and G12D transformation in particular, were indicative of association with poor survival. OurSomatic Mutations in Pancreatic Cancerresults also showed that concomitant occurrence of KRAS mutations and aberrations in CDKN2A resulted in a sub-group of patients with lowest survival. Our data from this study is suggestive for a case for the prognostic classification of pancreatic cancer patients based on 
mutational status of KRAS and CDKN2A. However, the results need independent confirmation in additional studies with definite statistical confidence.shifted bands due to mutations were subjected to sequencing. The sequencing was carried out using a BigDye Terminator Cycle sequencing kit (Applied Biosystems). Amplified PCR product was treated with ExoSapIT (Amersham Biosciences, Uppsala, Sweden) and sequencing reactions were carried out in 10 ml reaction volumes using forward and reverse primers separately. The reaction products were analyzed on an ABI prism 3100 Genetic analyzer (Applied Biosystems).Materials and Methods Ethics StatementFor all samples analyzed, written informed consent was obtained from the patients. The study was approved by the local ethics committee of the University of Heidelberg.Multiplex ligation-based probe amplification (MLPA)MLPA was used to detect MedChemExpress CASIN MedChemExpress PHCCC homozygous deletions at the CDKN2A locus using the MLPA ME024A kit (MRC-Holland, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) which contained 30 probes mapping chromosome 9p21 and 9p22, 13 reference probes and 9 internal controls. Refe.N between the presence of KRAS mutations and patient survival; however, there was difference in survival between the patients with different mutation types [14]. Lack of KRAS mutational status as predictive of survival was also reported in an earlier trial study of Gemctabine and Erlotinib therapy in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer [28]. KRAS mutations in the surgically negative resected margins have also been shown to be associated with clinical cancer recurrence, aggressive tumor biology and poor survival [29]. Similarly, detection of KRAS mutations in retroperitoneal margins, in the patients with complete pancreatectomy also showed poor prognosis [29]. The other gene that has been consistently reported to carry high frequency of somatic mutation in pancreatic cancers is CDKN2A [30]. The deletion/mutation frequency of CDKN2A in the present study was in agreement with that reported in the COSMIC database [31]. A mouse model with a conditional knock-in and knock-out of KrasG12D and Ink4a/Arf showed enhanced progression of pre-malignant lesions to PDAC [32,33]. In this study we found that the subset of patients with concomitant KRAS and CDKN2A aberrations were at 2.5-fold higher risk of death than patients without any alterations in the two genes. In a previous study it was shown that 1? mutations in pancreatic tumors showed a median survival of 23 months compared to 13 months in our present study [15]. The difference in median survival can be, possibly, attributed to the fact that 149 out of 159 patients in our study had stage III and IV tumors. Mice models have shown that survival times were dependent on genetic aberrations accompanying a KRAS mutation [34,35]. Similar results were reported in a study on KRAS mutations together with loss of heterozygosity on different chromosomal positions [29]. In conclusion, our results show that mutations in KRAS are frequent but not universal in pancreatic tumors and the presence of KRAS mutations in general, and G12D transformation in particular, were indicative of association with poor survival. OurSomatic Mutations in Pancreatic Cancerresults also showed that concomitant occurrence of KRAS mutations and aberrations in CDKN2A resulted in a sub-group of patients with lowest survival. Our data from this study is suggestive for a case for the prognostic classification of pancreatic cancer patients based on mutational status of KRAS and CDKN2A. However, the results need independent confirmation in additional studies with definite statistical confidence.shifted bands due to mutations were subjected to sequencing. The sequencing was carried out using a BigDye Terminator Cycle sequencing kit (Applied Biosystems). Amplified PCR product was treated with ExoSapIT (Amersham Biosciences, Uppsala, Sweden) and sequencing reactions were carried out in 10 ml reaction volumes using forward and reverse primers separately. The reaction products were analyzed on an ABI prism 3100 Genetic analyzer (Applied Biosystems).Materials and Methods Ethics StatementFor all samples analyzed, written informed consent was obtained from the patients. The study was approved by the local ethics committee of the University of Heidelberg.Multiplex ligation-based probe amplification (MLPA)MLPA was used to detect homozygous deletions at the CDKN2A locus using the MLPA ME024A kit (MRC-Holland, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) which contained 30 probes mapping chromosome 9p21 and 9p22, 13 reference probes and 9 internal controls. Refe.